A return for Police Officer Miller

22 October 2010 11:13

County Durham referee Nigel Miller returns to Turf Moor for the first time in almost three years when he referees our home game tomorrow against Reading. That's not strictly true; his last Turf Moor appearance was as fourth official for our Premier League finale against Spurs last season, but the last time he was in the middle at Turf Moor was on 27th October 2007 for a televised 3-2 defeat against Southampton.He didn't have a good game, but that was nothing compared to his last Burnley game in November 2008. That one came at Oakwell, again in front of the television cameras and again a 3-2 defeat. That night Miller turned in a shocker. I think we can all recall the second goal that night that was a clear handball as well as there being three players offside. But it wasn't just that decision, there were many more bad ones too on the night.It wasn't a surprise to be honest. He's had more than his fair share of bad games refereeing Burnley, some that have seen the game go against us and some that have seen it go in our favour. But this is a referee who seriously worries me.This season he has refereed 11 games in which there have been 23 yellow cards and just the one red card. Of those yellows, 8 have gone to home team players and 15 to away team players with the red card shown to Sheffield Wednesday's Richard HInds in their 4-2 Carling Cup defeat at Scunthorpe.Miller's last game came last Saturday when he refereed the Championship game between Leicester and Hull that ended 1-1. There were three yellow cards in that game, for Kyle Naughton (Leicester) and Hull's Daniel Ayala and Nicky Barmby.With his two qualifying games coming in those 3-2 defeats against Southampton and Barnsley, he currently sits in 39th place in the RATE THE REF table with a rating of 49.77 out of 100.The assistant referees tomorrow are Darren Handley and Lee Metcalfe. The fourth official is Peter Gooch. All three of these officials are from Lancashire. Previous Burnley games:SeasonOppsVResYRBurnley players cardeda2003/04West Bromh1-141Grant McGregor2004/05Burya3-210.2004/05QPRa0-350Blake Duff McGreal Sinclair2005/06Coventryh4-001.2005/06Stokeh1-030Duff Hyde Sinclair2006/07Sheffield Wedh1-110O'Connor[J]2006/07Birminghama1-030Caldwell2007/08Southamptonh2-310Akinbiyi2008/09Barnsleya2-330Carlisle Eagles